• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.459-474
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• 2009

The Journal of English Language and Literature. The purpose of this study is to provide an optimality theoretic approach to NPIs (Negative Polarity Items) in English and Korean by proposing three universal constraints. The constraints are C-command Condition (CCC): NPI must be c-commanded by a constituent with negative meaning; Locality Condition (LOC): NPI must be bound in the local domain; Subjacency: NPI licensing must satisfy Subjacency Condition (SBJ); Previous analyses have shown that these three constraints control NPIs in one way or another. This study attempts to demonstrate that NPIs in both English and Korean languages can be nicely accounted for by setting a different constraint hierarchy for the two independent languages. That is, by slightly changing the constraint hierarchy, distributional differences of NPIs in both languages can be accounted straightforwardly within the framework of Optimality Theory.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Language and Information Conference
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• 1983.02b
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• pp.71-106
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• 1983

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.33-60
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• 2004

This study was an attempt to present an appropriate way of interpreting L2 learners' linguistic behavior within Universal Grammar (UG) framework. Based on the Korean EFL adult learners' performance on the Subjacency violation sentences, the study suggested that the EFL learners are able to acquire subtle knowledge of target grammar and their linguistic behavior should be interpreted with the most recent version of UG theory, the Minimalist Program (MP) notion. The MP notion seems more plausible to accommodate incomplete L2 grammar while acknowledging UG-constrained interlanguage which the previous version, Principles and Parameters (P&P) approach, could not explain very well. The study observed no age-effects among the Korean EFL learners in their linguistic competence measured by the performance on the UG-constraint violation sentences. Having suggested that the MP notion can be a more reasonable tool to explain the EFL learners' linguistic behavior, the study introduced comprehensive hypotheses such as Constructionist Model (CM) and the Ontogeny Phylogeny Model (OPM).

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.305-327
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• 2002

This paper is in line with the attempts to examine two assumptions implied about the role of Universal Grammar (UC) in nonnative language acquisition: Are the EFL learners at disadvantage in acquiring UC-driven knowledge? Are there critical period effects in EFL learning? Based on the research with the seven studies of ESL and EFL adult learners performance on the Subjacency violation sentences, the paper investigates the extent to which the EFL adult learners can attain UG-driven knowledge represented by the Subjacency Principle. It also makes comparison of the EFL learners level of access to UG with that of their counterparts, the ESL learners. The research findings suggests that the EFL environment doesn't prevent the learners from acquiring target grammar in UG domain. That is, the current paper strongly suggests that the EFL adult-learners be able to acquire UG-driven knowledge to a considerable extent, at least as high as the ESL adult learners can attain. For the interpretation of the research results of the seven studies, Constructionist Hypothesis (CH) supported by a Minimalist Program (MP) assumption is employed. CH seems more plausible to account not only for incomplete acquisition observed among the beginning and intermediate level learners but also for the native-like competence acquired by advanced level L2 learners.

• Language and Information
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.171-185
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• 2002

I claim that the asymmetry of locality effects in wh-questions involving Complex Noun Phrase Island in Korean follows from the proposal for the asymmetric mode of scope taking between way (why) and the other wh-words in Korean as laid out in Choi (2002). 1 will show that the present proposal is superio. to the LF pied-piping approach in Nishigauchi (1990) and WH-structure pied-piping in von Stechow(1996) in that it does not have the fatal problem of wrong semantics in Nishigauchi and Subjacency violation problem in von Stechow. The crossed reading in examples involving Wh-island has an interesting implication for the mechanism of unselective binding, suggesting that Heim's (1982) quantifier indexing mechanism, which requires the local unselective binding of the indefinite by the unselective binder, may be too strong.